Cathy J. Jones, Acting United States Marshal for
the Southern District of Ohio and Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer,
announce the arrest of Lawrence W. Yancey. Yancey, who has an extensive
criminal history to include assault, domestic violence, arson, robbery, and
drugs is also a convicted sex offender after he was convicted of Unlawful
Sexual Conduct with a Minor in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas
in October 2004. Yancey, who was 37 at the time of the offense, had engaged
in an illegal sexual relationship with a 15 year-old girl.

Authorities say that in June 2009, Yancey allegedly tried to have oral sex
with another 15 year old female and after the attempt failed, he hit the
streets. When numerous attempts to locate Yancey in Dayton had failed,
authorities learned that he may have fled Ohio and headed for Los Angeles,
California. In his attempt to elude authorities on this pending charge,
Yancey violated the conditions of his sex offender registration and the
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Sex Offender Registration Unit picked up the
case. In September, after confirming information that Yancey had in fact
fled Ohio, the sheriff’s office teamed up with the U.S. Marshals who began
investigating Yancey for federal failure to register violations pursuant to
the Adam Walsh Act, which makes it a federal violation for sex offenders to
travel to new jurisdictions in order to avoid registration.

The U.S. Marshals in Dayton secured a federal
arrest warrant and immediately contacted the U.S. Marshals in Los Angeles to
pass on the lead that Yancey was visiting several homeless shelters and
receiving assistance from two Los Angeles County relief organizations. The
Marshals in Los Angeles investigated this information and narrowed the
search. On the morning of November 13, the U.S. Marshals located and
arrested Yancey at one of the area homeless shelters. Yancey will appear
before a federal magistrate in Los Angeles before being extradited back to
Ohio where he could be facing a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison.

Sheriff Plummer and his office are working
closely with the U.S. Marshal's Office. This cooperation will certainly lead
to additional apprehensions of violent criminals and sexual offenders wanted
in the Montgomery County Area.